Giwrgos Kapodistrias
From: bulgaria@access1.digex.net (Embassy of Bulgaria)
Subject: BTA inf/ Mar. 27, 95
March 26 - At the invitation of Russian Federation's Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin a delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev will leave tomorrow for Moscow. Mr. Tsochev is expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Finance Minister and Chairman of the intergovernmental commission for Russia Vladimir Panskov as well as with other representatives of the Russian Government.
DEVELOPMENT March 25 - A meeting between representatives of the Bulgarian Government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was held today in the Boyana residence. In an opening address Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev stressed that the Bulgarian Government will not just seek financial support from the international institutions, but will do its best to make Bulgaria an equal business partner, particularly to the states in the European Union. "The Government will turn Bulgaria's e inactivity into a position of active cooperation, seeking to balance the interests of the national economy with those of the creditor states," Deputy PM Gechev also said. EBRD's Director of the team for Bulgaria Olivier Descamps said that the bank has serious intentions to assist the Bulgarian Government in the successful pursuance of its economic policy. The EBRD allocates 60 per cent of the loans for the private sector and for that reason the 1995 key priorities of the Bank are directed to privatization. EBRD will assist in the first stages of drafting the privatization projects. In the banking sector the Bank will continue to support the recapitalization and the privatization of selected financial institutions and will introduce new credit lines for the Bulgarian banks. In the field of infrastructure the Bank will complete its projects for wholesale markets and for the reconstruction of the railway system. At the same time it will study the possibilities to take part in projects for the heat power system, power engineering and environment protection, city transport and port facilities. The Deputy Prime Minister familiarized the participants with the programs for voucher and cash privatization. Finance Minister Dimiter Kostov and Minister of Industry Kliment Vouchev presented the Government's priorities. They said that in the field of the international financial cooperation what is most important for Bulgaria is to strike a balance between the future benefits and the current budget expenditures. In their view the Government will direct all its efforts to achieve renovation of the Bulgarian economy and economic growth. Divided in four groups: private sector, financial institutions, power engineering, infrastructure and municipalities, the representatives of the Bulgarian Government and of the EBRD continued their talks at an expert level.
March 24 - The Chairman of the Bulgaria-France Friendship Group at the French National Assembly Mr. Jean Seitlinger described as "very fruitful" a five-day visit on which he led a French parliamentary delegation here at the invitation of the Bulgaria-France Friendship Group at the Bulgarian National Assembly. The French MPs were received today by President Zhelyu Zhelev. Both sides assessed bilateral relations in positive terms and discussed the situation in the Balkans, the Presidential Spokesman said. Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski today received the French parliamentary delegation. The chief Bulgarian diplomat and the guests discussed the entry into force of the Schengen Agreement and the difficulties which Bulgarian citizens will experience in obtaining entry visas to Western Europe. Mr. Seitlinger told reporters after the meeting that the visa question is rather complicated but France undertakes to help Bulgaria find a more acceptable solution. The losses which this country sustains by observing the Yugoembargo were also on the agenda. Mr. Pirinski will raise this matter when he visits the Council of Europe at the end of March. Before his departure Mr. Seitlinger said that the Chairman of the Bulgarian National Assembly Blagovest Sendov had invited the President of the French National Assembly Philippe Seguin to visit Bulgaria.
Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski received Slovakian Ambassador to Bulgaria Josef Dravecky. The sides discussed the relations between the two countries, the prospects for their advancement, Pirinski's visit to Bratislava and some problems of security in Europe.
Foreign Minister Pirinski received Michai Koshkodan, Ambassador of Moldova to Bulgaria. The sides discussed bilateral relations and the prospects for their further promotion.
With a note of March 13, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Embassy of Bulgaria in Helsinki that the holders of Bulgarian passports are no longer required to have affidavits of invitation to get entry visas, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman said.
The ministries of labor and social affairs of Bulgaria and Germany signed an agreement on cooperation and joint activities. The agreement contains five German projects for supporting the reform in labor administration, social security, labor protection, employment and structural development in Bulgaria.
March 24 - By the year 2000 we will have only three medium-tonnage vessels and six smaller ones unless urgent measures are taken, acting Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hristo Kontrov told a news conference last night on the situation in the navy. Most of the vessels, produced in the 1960- 70s, are long outdated; there are no spare parts. The navy needs 11,000 million leva for repairs and daily maintenance of its fleet, and for launching a shipbuilding program adopted by the Council of Science and Technology with the Bulgarian army. Of the four submarines in the naval fleet, two were sold after they went out of use and one is still used in exercises. The fourth needs a new battery, but while a Russian or Ukrainian-made one once cost 37,000 transferable rubles, now its price is 1.5 million US dollars. Rear Admiral Kontrov said the navy faces a serious dilemma: to buy vessels secondhand whenever an opportunity emerges, or to launch domestic production. The shipbuilding program envisages the production of a universal 800-1,000 tons displacement vessel, that can be used as a missile cruiser, anti- submarine cruiser or mine sweeper. The acting Navy Commander also said the navy is severely understaffed. There are 20% officer vacancies, 40% for boat crews, which is an immediate result of the low pay (a low-rank officers receives some 5,000 to 6,000 leva a month) and inexcusable inaction of cabinet and parliament in the sphere of lawmaking.
A Bulgarian parliamentary delegation, led by the Chairman of the Bulgarian inter-parliamentary group Anzhel Vagenshtain left for Spain to take part in a conference of the Inter-parliamentary Union. The Bulgarian MPs will read reports about the situation in the Balkans and the negative effects of the Yugosanctions on Bulgaria.
Bulgaria has joined Ukraine, Romania and Albania in expressing readiness to assist in the restoration of the economies of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia as states which have directly suffered from the military conflicts in former Yugoslavia, BTA's correspondent in Scopje Nikolai Koev said at the end of a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers of the member states of the Central European Initiative.
Director of the Coordinating Center of the Partnership for Peace General Gunner Lange arrived on a visit here today. He will hold talks with Bulgarian representatives and experts on the tasks under the PfP initiative. Tomorrow Mr. Lange will be received by Deputy Defense Minister Dimiter Mitkov and by the first Deputy Chief of Bulgarian Army's General Staff Colonel General Petko Prokopiev, the national radio said.
The Ministry of Industry has planned to sell 60 enterprises in 1995. The expected revenue is estimated at 1,500 million leva. Within more than a year the Ministry of Industry has sold as little as 30 enterprises, worth a total of 600 million leva.
"We hope that the fourth standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund will be signed in April," National Bank Governor Todor Vulchev told "Douma". Talks with the IMF will be held in late April, the daily says.
The National Bank of Bulgaria (BNB) will forgive the Economic Bank and Mineralbank their debt service interest payments, "Pari" quotes BNB Vice Governor Lyubomir Filipov as saying. The two banks owe the BNB some 28,000 million leva.